Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Unnecessary question
Pointless article in Popular Anti-Science.
Headlines:
Who Will Driverless Cars Decide To Kill?
A question that will plague the autonomous car industry
Author is discussing the "trolley problem", Game-Theory nonsense that bears less than zero connection to human reactions and morality.
Reality doesn't use Game-Theory. Just simple physics.
Which force is designing self-driving cars? What's the KNOWN AND PREDICTABLE vector of this force?
After answering those, the stupid headline is automatically answered. We know who GoogCar will kill, and we know that GOOG/AAPL will NOT be "plagued" by the decision. GOOG/AAPL will be deliriously happy. Fulfilling their sole purpose for existence.
The cool will always kill the uncool.
Autonomous cars can't distinguish all the characteristics of Unpersons, but they can detect two reliable shibboleths of Negative Externalities.
(1) Pedestrians who are NOT carrying an iPhone are uncool. Non-iPhoners are either old, Luddite, or strictly religious. All perfectly uncool, all perfectly killworthy.
(2) Pedestrians who move slowly and irregularly are uncool. Old and/or disabled.
Killing the uncool is called ETHICS. See Peter Singer for more details.
Labels: Asked and answered, Ethics
¶ 2:19 AM
